Countable Nouns Versus Uncountable Nouns

12Feb. 2015

The major division of English nouns is into Countable and Uncountable Nouns.

Countable nouns are nouns that have a singular form and a plural form and can we can count them using numbers. The nouns that fall under this category become plural by adding an ‘s’ at the end of the word.

Examples of Countable:

Books

Tomatoes

Pencils

Doors

Coins

Fingers

Uncountable (or mass) nouns are the exact opposite of Countable Nouns. They are nouns which cannot be counted using numbers. Thus, they only have a singular form. They have no plural forms. These words are thought of as wholes rather than as parts. They can be the names for things that are too small or too amorphous to be counted (water, flour, oxygen…etc.) and also for abstract ideas (love, pride, honour…etc.) or qualities(greed,egocentricity…etc.).